Veterans Affairs Secretary Doug Collins will testify before House appropriators next week after lawmakers voted to withhold funding for the agency if he didn’t, according to two people familiar with the hearing, which has yet to be officially announced.
“They were just being ornery,” Rep. John Carter (R-Texas), who chairs the VA appropriations subcommittee, said of the Trump administration in an interview Thursday afternoon.
The House plans to vote Friday to pass the annual bill that funds Collins’ department. Within that measure, lawmakers included a provision to withhold 25 percent of the department’s operating budget until Collins testifies before both chambers.
Quinn Slaven, the department’s press secretary, said in a statement it is “patently false” that Collins was pressured to testify.
“Long before the House Appropriations Committee instated the 25% withholding provision, and even before the president’s current budget request was released, VA informed the committee that Sec. Collins was willing to testify at the committee’s convenience,” Slaven said.
The secretary already appeared before Senate appropriators last month.
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